Consider the scribbled art you see hanging on your fridge. The tiny hands that created those stick figures and paint splotches gained far more from that creation than the joy of seeing the art displayed. Art is broad in style and expression, but it’s just as vast in the benefits it can provide to your child. Read on to learn the ten benefits of art for children.
Then head to the craft store to stock up on supplies to allow your child to tap into the creativity locked inside.
1. Encourage Creativity and Imagination
You likely already know that art encourages creativity, but take it even deeper to understand what that creativity unlocks in your child.
Creativity gives your child the space to play in their imagination, develop problem-solving skills, and promote critical thinking. Using art, your child will learn to innovate, design, and think outside the box.
Logical thinking grows during times of creativity as your child works to solve problems and work through mistakes and challenges in a safe space. Give your child the gift of seeing creativity as something that carries into all aspects of their life.
2. Build Fine Motor Skills
Scribbling and coloring are more than just a busy activity for your child while you are working.
The motor skills training involved with coloring or crafts is crucial for development. With any form of art, your child uses their hands and those fine motor skills.
Whether they grip a marker, mold with clay, or make paint strokes, your child builds motor skills through repetition. With each stroke, your child builds memory and strength to help them with more detailed tasks in the future.
3. Instill Self-Expression in Your Child
Each day, your child faces questions of right and wrong, and good or bad. Assist your child in easing this concern to have it correct through art.
Art for children gives your child an outlet where there is no wrong answer. They can feel, think, and express what is inside them without added pressure. Art teaches your child to express thoughts and feelings safely and healthily.
4. Boost Memory and Visual-Spatial Processing
Believe it or not, art offers a space for your child to learn to process information, make decisions, and enhance memory.
After each paint or marker stroke, your child must decide what they want to do next to create their masterpiece. With the next stroke, they look at their creation and analyze what might be missing or what they wish to add.
As your child completes more projects, you will notice shifts and refinement in their art as they grow in their visual-spatial processing. Slowly, a dog looks more like a dog, and the stick figures are more balanced with the head and body size.
Each project and creation is a learning opportunity for your child to develop the necessary skills for processing and building upon the information.
5. Develop Personal Values
Creating a masterpiece in art takes time, patience, and practice.
Each project requires a new level of perseverance as your child makes mistakes and tries again. Teach your child perseverance at a young age by utilizing art.
After they make a mistake, keep your child from crumpling the paper or trying something new. Instead, find the good in the error, or teach them to try another way.
Your child will develop values through art that will carry them through the rest of their lives.
6. Improve Academics
Children face many stressors in the world around them. With so much stress placed on their shoulders, your child needs support to ensure their best education.
Through art, assist your child in reducing stress and increasing their confidence to help inside the classroom. Even if your child has art time or class during school hours, you can foster this space at home.
Art teaches your child focus and discipline, which are valuable tools for an effective learning environment in school.
7. Create Cultural Awareness
The beauty of art is it’s unrestrained in style and medium. Your child can experience the world and different cultures through historical art, pieces from various periods, and try different art styles on their own.
Open the gates of curiosity and education by allowing your child to experience various methods and traditions of art as they create their own.
8. Enhance Social Skills Through Collaborative Work
Your child can increase their social skills through activities worked on in collaboration with other children.
Through art classes, your child will learn to work as a group and encourage or support other children in their work. They will learn better communication skills and work as a team to solve problems or develop new ideas.
9. Foster the Use of All Senses
Through the variety of art, your child will be able to use all their senses. Increase brain development through activities that involve smell, taste, touch, sight, and sound.
Use mixing colors, scented materials, and food items to create art. You can also use different material textures and music to create a well-rounded art experience.
10. Teach Your Child to Connect to Themselves
Arts and crafts give your child a space to take thoughts and emotions that might seem too big and put them into a tangible outlet. Teach your child to understand their thoughts, feelings, and connection to themselves.
Too many adults lack self-awareness or expression when it comes to emotions. Allow your child to understand, communicate, and process thoughts and feelings through art to help ground them in the future.
Build adults who are well connected to themselves and thus can have healthier relationships.
Learn the Benefits of Art for Children to Boost Your Child’s Wellbeing
Art is a beautiful expression through many different methods and styles. The benefits of art for children take this beauty of creation and give your child foundational tools to create a healthy adult.
Instill specific qualities and lessons into your child that can only develop through art. See the value play out in your child’s behavior and education.
Find a school that values these same benefits and builds into your child’s wellbeing. Learn more or schedule a tour today to find the best school for your child to thrive through art and academics.
The Learning Experience – Huntington Beach
17131 Beach Blvd
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
(657) 244-8948
https://thelearningexperience.com/center/huntington-beach/
